I've written my fair share of articles on No Man's Sky, since the game's concept is one of the more interesting in recent years (for me; editor liberties, can we call it?). The game may have excelled more in concept than in execution, but a series of updates have brought the game close to what was promised. Now, developer Hello games has brought about an update that brings a more subtle change: the game's API has been updated from OpenGL to Vulkan. The "behind the curtains" update has brought about improved performance across the spectrum of graphics cards that support that API renderer (in particular AMD users, as the patch notes themselves spell out), and, expectedly, an easier coding time for the developers. Improved HDR support was also coded into the game. The full patch notes follow, as well as Hello Games' words on this change.

"As part of our optimisation work, we have added Vulkan support to the game. We have been able to do this not only for Beyond, but for the current live version of the game. As such, we wanted to release this to you as soon as possible.

Final Vulkan support will bring many PC players an immediate performance improvement, but it also helps us increase our options as we continue to make significant engine changes. It is only one portion of a large body of work that will see technical improvements for all players on all platforms."

No Man's Sky PC Vulkan Patch Release Notes

OpenGL has been replaced by Vulkan. Many players, particularly players with AMD graphics cards, should see a performance improvement

Revised HDR support, updated output curve in line with advances in HDR calibration

Adaptive and Triple-Buffered V-Sync are now selectable from Graphics Settings

Players with more than one GPU can now select which is used from Graphics Settings

Changing the following settings no longer require restarting:

Window Mode

Resolution

V-Sync

Shadow Detail

Reflection Quality

The 'LOADING SHADERS' load step has been removed, improving the loading experience.

Crash data is gathered via Steam to help us track down and fix issues.

Game runs much better now with almost no stuttering, went from 30~40 fps in stations to 60+
Also wanted to point out that its not a render option they literally dropped OGL in favor of Vulkan going forward.

Before, with all the settings at the lowest possible, resolution at 1280x720, AF 1x and FXAA enabled, it barely reached 20/25 FPS at best, and it could go as low as 3 FPS.

Now, I pushed the resolution to 1920x1080, AF 2x and everything else to either "On" or "Medium" (except Motion Blur, which remains Off) and the game goes anywhere between 25 to 90 FPS (my homebase is full of holes and there is a lot of stuff and glass all around, so I suppose it gets really jittery because of that).

There seems to be some problem loading ground textures in time. I think the problem may be tessellation. I'll have to try setting it to Off.

Keep in mind that I'm running this game on a Core i3 and a RX 580, so performance will hardly be impressive. But the upgrades in my game experience are pretty damn good.

Batou1986Game runs much better now with almost no stuttering, went from 30~40 fps in stations to 60+
Also wanted to point out that its not a render option they literally dropped OGL in favor of Vulkan going forward.

Where did that come from? I don't have first hand experience with Vulkan, but talking to a guy that does it takes about 10x the effort to set up a scene using these low level APIs, compared to their predecessors.
It's like going back from Java/C# to plain C. You get more flexibility, but you have to work for it.

lexluthermiesterThat's easy, benefit to the end user which will make the product on offer more appealing and desirable!

I admire your innocence. They'll just ask you: do I get twice the profit if I invest twice as much money? :D

I totally see your point, I often have to argue if you have to choose before developer's comfort and user's experience you should always pick the latter. But just because I have to argue that, means many people (fellow developers) think otherwise. Somewhat related, but no further than today I pointed out there's no need for Java (+a bunch of Spring projects) to build some simple REST services where Python will do just fine. And the gist of the answer was "our devs are more comfortable with the Java way".

bugI admire your innocence. They'll just ask you: do I get twice the profit if I invest twice as much money? :D

Ah, but there's another cost/benefit. Entity reputation. Outfits like EA have little market respect which is why, even with their new battle-royal game, they are hurting financially. The gaming market has figured them out and doesn't trust them. With NMS, they had a bad start but strived to make things right had have. The public is forgiving them and the game has gained success. The dev house has gain a lot of insight and experience and understands what it is to make the right effort at the right time and how important reputation is. Long term player loyalty support goes a long way to drive success. Which is why I'm still an Nintendo geek. They are not perfect but they make the investments that count and drive quality over quantity.

lexluthermiesterAh, but there's another cost/benefit. Entity reputation. Outfits like EA have little market respect which is why, even with their new battle-royal game, they are hurting financially. The gaming market has figured them out and doesn't trust them. With NMS, they had a bad start but strived to make things right had have. The public is forgiving them and the game has gained success. The dev house has gain a lot of insight and experience and understands what it is to make the right effort at the right time and how important reputation is. Long term player loyalty support goes a long way to drive success. Which is why I'm still an Nintendo geek. They are not perfect but they make the investments that count and drive quality over quantity.

Ninty have always pushed the game forward in some way. They always stayed true to their roots. Mainly it was done pushing the control interface. They innovated such a range of ways to interact with a game and rarely get the credit.

Switch is a step away from that really. Something more of a merger of their main platforms. It is very current and gives the mainstream gamers a new way to play everywhere.